Managing processes within suspend states and execution states

ABSTRACT

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for suspending logically related processes associated with an application, determining whether to resume a suspended process based upon one or more wake policies, and/or managing an application state of an application, such as timer and/or system message data. That is, logically related processes associated with an application, such as child processes, may be identified and suspended based upon logical relationships between the processes (e.g., a logical container hierarchy may be traversed to identify logically related processes). A suspended process may be resumed based upon a set of wake policies. For example, a suspended process may be resumed based upon an inter-process communication call policy that may be triggered by an application attempting to communicate with the suspended process. Application data may be managed while an application is suspended so that the application may be resumed in a current and/or relevant state.

BACKGROUND

Many computing devices, such as desktops, laptops, smart phones, andtablets, are developed around conserving power consumption, improvingdevice and application startup latency, and improving overallresponsiveness. For example, when a device is not used for some time,such as ten minutes, the device may be placed into a sleep state thatmay significantly reduce application activity, and thus may result inimproved power consumption. When a user subsequently attempts to use thedevice, the device is awakened from this sleep state to afford the userwith the full capabilities of the device.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key factors oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Among other things, one or more systems and/or techniques for suspendingone or more processes associated with an application, determiningwhether to resume a suspended process based upon one or more wakepolicies, and/or managing an application state of an application aredisclosed herein.

A computing environment may host applications that are associated withprocesses, which may be executed by one or more processors as threads.It may be appreciated that one or more systems and/or methods describedherein may be applicable to applications, process, and/or threads (e.g.,since processes are made up of threads which run code on one moreprocessors, the techniques and/or systems mentioned herein are appliedequally to threads). Because the computing environment may host aplurality of applications and/or processes, a logical containerhierarchy may be implemented to manage such applications and/orprocesses. In particular, applications may be assigned to logicalcontainers, such as a root logical container, within the logicalcontainer hierarchy. Similarly, processes may be assigned to logicalcontainers. The logical container hierarchy may allow for hierarchicalnesting of related applications, processes, and/or logical containers.For example, a text editor application (e.g., a parentapplication/process) may be assigned to a root logical container. Thetext editor application may be associated with one or more childprocesses, such as a text editor print process, a text editor saveprocess, and/or a spell checker process. Accordingly, the text editorprint process, the text editor save process, and/or the spell checkerprocess may, for example, may be assigned to logical containersassociated with (e.g., nested within) the root logical containerassigned to the text editor application. In this way, an association(e.g., relationship) between the text editor application and/or childprocesses may be identifiable.

In one example of suspending one or more processes associated with anapplication as provided herein, a notification that an application isinactive may be received (e.g., the application may not be visible to auser, the user may not have interacted with the application within apredetermined time, the application may be in a background state, etc.).One or more processes associated with the application may be identified.In one example, a logical container hierarchy may be consulted toidentify the one or more processes. For example, a root logicalcontainer assigned to the application may be identified. A first processassigned to a first logical container associated with (e.g., nestedwithin) the root logical container may be identified. A second processassigned to the first logical container associated with (e.g., nestedwithin) the root logical container may be identified. A third processassigned to a second logical container associated with (e.g., nestedwithin) the first logical container may be identified. In this way, thefirst, second, and third process may be identified as being associatedwith the application. It may be appreciated that a variety of processesand/or applications may be identified as being associated with theapplication. The one or more processes associated with the applicationmay be placed into a suspend state to conserve power consumption byrendering the suspended processes ineligible for processor executionscheduling. Once suspended, newly created threads and/or processesassociated with the suspended application (e.g., newly created processesassigned to logical containers nested within the root logical container)may be suspended to maintain suspension consistency across processesassociated with the suspended application. In this way, processescurrently associated with the application and/or newly created processesmay be identified as being associated with the application, and may besuspended accordingly. It may be appreciated that suspension of one ormore processes as provided herein may occur when the device is or is notin a sleep mode, but where one or more applications are inactive or notbeing used. Thus, power may be conserved and/or battery life extendedeven when a device is in use.

In one example of determining whether to resume a suspended process asprovided herein, a set of wake policies associated with a suspendedprocess may be maintained. A wake policy may be indicative of a reasonto resume the suspended process into an execution state. In one example,a wake policy may correspond to a situation where a requestingapplication sends an inter-process communication call to a suspendedprocess. In another example, a wake policy may correspond to a situationwhere a suspended application associated with the suspended process istransitioned into a foreground state. In another example, a wake policymay correspond to a situation where user input associated with thesuspended application is detected. It may be appreciated that a wakepolicy may correspond to a variety of situations and/or reasons to wakethe suspended process. The wake policy may be associated with a counterindicative of a number of wake notifications (e.g., a notification thatan event associated with a wake policy has occurred, such as arequesting application sending inter-process communication to thesuspended process) associated with the wake policy that are currentlypending for the suspended process. The counter may be incremented (e.g.,an event associated with a wake notification may be pending) and/ordecremented (e.g., an event associated with a wake notification may becompleted). For example, a counter for an inter-process communicationwake policy may be incremented to 1 upon receiving a first wakenotification that a spreadsheet application sent an inter-processcommunication call to a suspended text editor. The counter for theinter-process communication wake policy may be incremented to 2 uponreceiving a second wake notification that a browser application sent aninter-process communication call to the suspended text editor.

The set of wake policies may be evaluated to determine whether to placethe suspended process into an execution state or retain the suspendedprocess in the suspend state. In one example, the suspended process maybe placed into the execution state based upon determining at least onecounter associated with a wake policy comprises a value above athreshold value (e.g., at least one counter has a value above 2). Inanother example, values of one or more counters may be aggregatedtogether to create an aggregated value (e.g., three counters associatedwith various wake policies may have a value of 1, and thus an aggregatedvalue of 3 may be determined). The aggregated value may be adjustedbased upon weights associated with the wake policies (e.g., a wakepolicy associated with user input may receive a weight value of 2, whilea wake policy associated with a remote third party request may receive aweight value of 0.5 because it may be more advantageous to respondaggressively to a user as opposed to a remote third party). Likewise aparticular counter may be unconditionally observed (e.g., a usercounter), whereas another counter may be conditionally observed (e.g.,based on frequency, noisiness, source, etc.). If the suspended processis placed into the execution state as an executing application, then acurrent state of the wake policies and/or a time elapsed sincecompletion of a wake notification may be evaluated in determiningwhether and/or when to place the executing process back into the suspendstate. For example, the executing process may be retained in theexecution state for a period of time in the event additionalinter-process communication calls are performed. As an optimization, thenotifications may be delivered on “edge” transitions (0->1, 1->0) for aparticular counter. In the first case, the policy for execution isevaluated and in the second case the policy for suspension is evaluated.

It may be appreciated that in one example, the set of wake policies maybe associated with a logical container assigned to the suspended processwithin a logical container hierarchy. Accordingly, if the suspendedprocess is placed into the execution state, then one or more processesand/or applications associated with the suspended process (e.g.,processes assigned to logical containers associated with a logicalcontainer assigned to the suspended process) may be placed into theexecution state.

In one example of managing an application state as provided herein, alist of timers associated with an application may be maintained. Forexample, absolute timers (e.g., a timeout set of 2:00 PM Aug. 31, 2011),relative timers (e.g., a timeout set at 10 minutes), and/or other typesof timers may be maintained. Upon receiving a notification that theapplication is to be suspended, an application state comprising timerrebasing data derived from the list of timers may be created. Theapplication state may be created because certain timers, such asrelative timers, may timeout while the application is suspended eventhough the underlying reason for the timer has not occurred. Forexample, a text editor application may set a relative timer of 10minutes for a spell checker process because the spell checker processgenerally does not take more than 10 minutes to complete unless an errorhas occurred. However, the spell checker process may be suspended after2 minutes from the creation of the relative timer, and may be suspendedfor 15 minutes. Without adjusting the relative timer, the relative timermay timeout (e.g., the timeout may be incorrect because the timeout isnot related to an error of the spell checker, but merely a suspension ofthe spell checker). Because the spell checker has not erred, but ismerely suspended, the relative timer may be rebased using relative timerrebasing data, such as a time till expiration value, within theapplication state (e.g., the application state may comprise relativetimer rebasing data comprising a time till expiration value indicating atime span from when the relative timer is suspended to an originalexpiration time of the relative timer). Additionally, relative timersmay be adjusted so that upon resumption of a suspended application, anabundance of timer expirations do not occur that may otherwise causeunnecessary CPU consumption and/or may detract from user experience. Incontrast, absolute timers may be associated with an absolute time (e.g.,an original expiration time), such that an application may desire to benotified when the absolute time occurs regardless of whether anapplication associated with the timer was suspended. Accordingly, theabsolute timer may be rebased using absolute timer rebasing data, suchas an original expiration time, within the application state (e.g., theapplication state may comprise absolute timer rebasing data comprisingthe original expiration time). In this way, the application statecomprising timer rebasing data may be used for rebasing timers uponresumption of the application from the suspend state back into theexecution state.

In another example of managing an application state as provided herein,an application message queue associated with an application may bemaintained while the application is in a suspend state. The applicationmessage queue may be configured to store system messages for theapplication (e.g., system messages associated with settings within acontrol panel). For example, an operating system of a tablet device mayqueue system messages for a text editor, such as a user interfacecolor=green system message, a language=English system message, a tabletview orientation=portrait system message, etc. The application messagequeue may receive and/or store system messages while the application issuspended. Because overlapping messages may be received over time thatmay render currently queued messages irrelevant (e.g., while suspended,a first message that the tablet view orientation has been set toportrait may be received, then later a second message that the tabletview orientation has been set to landscape may be received, which maymake the first message irrelevant), it may be advantageous to manage theapplication message queue so that the application may be placed into anexecution state in a current up-to-date application state. Accordingly,a first system message directed to the application queue while theapplication is in the suspend state may be received. A determination maybe made as to whether the first system message corresponds to a secondsystem message within the application message queue. Upon determiningthe first system message corresponds to the second system message, thefirst system message and/or the second system message may be modifiedand/or deleted (e.g., a newly received first system message that a userinterface color=green may be placed in the application message queue,while an already queued second system message that the user interfacecolor=red may be deleted). In this way, upon resumption of theapplication into the execution state, the application may processrelevant system messages from the application message queue as opposedto “stale” and/or irrelevant system messages. Managing the applicationmessage queue may have an additional positive performance impact in thatthe redundant messages do not unnecessarily consume system resourceswhen the target process is not runnable/executable (e.g., a new messagemay be dropped/deleted, older corresponding messages may bedropped/deleted while the new message may be retained, messages may beintelligently merged, etc.).

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the followingdescription and annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative aspectsand implementations. These are indicative of but a few of the variousways in which one or more aspects may be employed. Other aspects,advantages, and novel features of the disclosure will become apparentfrom the following detailed description when considered in conjunctionwith the annexed drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of suspendingone or more processes associated with an application.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of suspendingone or more processes associated with an application.

FIG. 3 is a component block diagram illustrating an exemplary system forsuspending one or more processes associated with an application.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of determiningwhether to resume a suspended process based upon a set of wake policies.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of determiningwhether to resume a suspended process based upon a set of wake policies.

FIG. 6 is a component block diagram illustrating an exemplary system fordetermining whether to resume a suspended process based upon a wakepolicy.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of managing anapplication state of an application.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of managing anapplication state of an application.

FIG. 9 is a component block diagram illustrating an exemplary system formanaging an application state of an application.

FIG. 10 is a component block diagram illustrating an exemplary systemfor managing an application state of an application.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an exemplary computer-readable mediumwherein processor-executable instructions configured to embody one ormore of the provisions set forth herein may be comprised.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary computing environment wherein one ormore of the provisions set forth herein may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The claimed subject matter is now described with reference to thedrawings, wherein like reference numerals are generally used to refer tolike elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes ofexplanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. It may beevident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, structures anddevices are illustrated in block diagram form in order to facilitatedescribing the claimed subject matter.

One or more systems and/or techniques are provided herein for suspendingone or more processes associated with an application, determiningwhether to resume a suspended process based upon one or more wakepolicies, and managing an application state of an application areprovided herein. In particular, one or more processes associated with anapplication may be suspended (e.g., processes associated with anapplication may be identified based upon a logical container hierarchy,and may be suspended as a group). A suspended process may be resumedbased upon maintaining a set of wake policies indicating reasons toresume the suspended process into an execution state (e.g., if athreshold number of inter-process communication calls from a requestingapplication to a suspended process are received, then the suspendedprocess may be placed into an execution state to process theinter-process communication calls). During suspension of an application,an application state may be derived from timers associated with asuspended application, such that the timers may be rebased using theapplication state upon resumption of the suspended application into anexecution state. Additionally, an application message queue may bemanaged while an application is suspended so that irrelevant and/orstale messages are modified and/or removed from the application queue.In this way, upon entering the execution state, the application mayprocess relevant system messages so that the application may be placedinto a current application state.

One embodiment of suspending one or more processes associated with anapplication is illustrated by an exemplary method 100 in FIG. 1. At 102,the method starts. At 104, a notification that an application isinactive may be received (e.g., the application may be transitioned intoa background state, the application may be invisible to a user (e.g.,behind a different application that has been brought to the foregroundon a monitor), the user may not have interacted with the application fora period of time, etc.). At 106, one or more processes associated withthe application may be identified. In one example, a logical containerhierarchy (e.g., logical container hierarchy 308 of FIG. 3) may beconsulted to determine which processes are associated with theapplication. For example, the application may be assigned to a rootlogical container within the logical container hierarchy, whileprocesses associated with the application may be assigned to logicalcontainers associated with (e.g., nested within) the root logicalcontainer.

In one example of identifying one or more processes, a first process maybe determined as being associated with the application based upon adetermination that the first process is assigned to a first logicalcontainer associated with (e.g., nested within) the root logicalcontainer (e.g., the first process may be a direct child process of theapplication). In another example, a second process may be determined asbeing associated with the application based upon a determination thatthe second process is assigned to the first logical container associatedwith the root logical container (e.g., the second process may be adirect child process of the application). In another example, a secondprocess may be determined as being associated with the application basedupon a determination that the second process is assigned to a secondlogical container associated with the first logical container (e.g., thesecond process may be direct child process of the first process and/oran indirect child process of the application). In this way, the one ormore processes associated with the application may be determined.

At 108, the one or more processes may be placed into a suspend state.For example, a suspended process may be marked as ineligible forprocessor execution, such that the threads comprising the suspendedprocess may not be considered as candidates by a thread scheduler forexecution. In one example, the application and/or other applicationsassociated with the one or more processes may be notified of thesuspension, which may provide an opportunity for such applications tosave state information (e.g., a social network application may savestate information associated with a current profile being viewed by auser, such that upon resumption, the social network application maypresent the current profile to the user). Memory content associated witha suspended process may be saved to a storage device as saved memorycontent. In this way, the saved memory content may be returned tomemory, which may allow the suspended process to quickly resumeexecution.

It may be appreciated that a newly created process (e.g., a processcreated after the one or more processes are suspended) may be placedinto a suspend state based upon a determination that the newly createdprocess is associated with one or more of the suspended processes and/orthe inactive application. For example, a newly created process may bedetermined as associated with the inactive application based upondetermining that the newly created process is assigned to a logicalcontainer associated with the root logical container of the inactiveapplication. In this way, the newly created process may be placed intothe suspend state. At 110, the method ends.

One embodiment of suspending one or more processes associated with anapplication is illustrated by an exemplary method 200 in FIG. 2. At 202,the method starts. At 204, a notification that an application isinactive may be received. At 206, a logical container hierarchy may beiteratively traversed to identify one or more processes associated withthe application. In one example, a root logical container assigned to anapplication may be identified within the logical container hierarchy. Afirst process may be determined as being associated with the applicationbased upon determining that the first process is assigned to a firstlogical container associated with (e.g., nested within) the root logicalcontainer. In another example, a second process may be determined asbeing associated with the application based upon a determination thatthe second process is assigned to the first logical container associatedwith the root logical container (e.g., the second process may be adirect child process of the application). In another example, a secondprocess may be determined as being associated with the application basedupon a determination that the second process is assigned to a secondlogical container associated with the first logical container (e.g., thesecond process may be a direct child process of the first process and/oran indirect child process of the application). In this way, the one ormore processes associated with the application may be identified. At208, the one or more processes may be placed into a suspend state. Inthis way, processes and/or newly created processes associated with theinactive application may be suspended. At 210, the method ends.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a system 300 configured to suspend oneor more processes associated with an application. The system 300 maycomprise a suspension component 322. The suspension component 322 may beconfigured to receive a notification that an application is inactive.For example, a text editor application 302 and a spreadsheet application304 may be hosted within a computing environment. A user may switch fromthe text editor application 302 to the spreadsheet application 304,which may result in the text editor application 302 transitioning to abackground state. In this way, the suspension component 322 may receivea text editor inactive notification 306.

The suspension component 322 may be configured to iteratively traverse alogical container hierarchy 308 to identify one or more processesassociated with the application. In one example, the text editorapplication 302 may be associated with a text editor process 312assigned to a text editor root logical container 310. While executing,the text editor application 302 may have created one or more childprocesses, such as a text editor print process 314 and/or a text editorsave process 316, which may have been assigned to the text editor rootlogical container 310. Additionally, the text editor application 302 mayhave invoked spell check functionality associated with a spell checkerprocess 320 assigned to a spell checker logical container 318. The spellchecker logical container 318 may be nested within the text editor rootlogical container 310 because the spell checker process 320 may beassociated with the text editor application 302. Accordingly, thesuspension component 322 may determine that the text editor printprocess 314, the text editor save process 316, and/or the spell checkerprocess 320 may be associated with the text editor application 302 basedupon traversing the logical container hierarchy 308. In this way, thesuspension component 322 may suspend 324 the text editor process 312,the text editor print process 314, the text editor save process 316, thespell checker process 320, and/or newly created processes associatedwith the text editor application 302 based upon the text editorapplication 302 being inactive, which may result in improved powerconsumption because such processes and/or applications may be ineligibleto consume processor execution resources and/or other power consumingresources.

One embodiment of determining whether to resume a suspended processbased upon a set of wake policies is illustrated by an exemplary method400 in FIG. 4. At 402, the method starts. At 404, a set of wake policiesassociated with a suspended process may be maintained. A wake policy maybe indicative of a reason to resume the suspended process into anexecution state. In one example, a wake policy may correspond to aninter-process communication call from a requesting application to thesuspended process (e.g., a spreadsheet application may attempt torequest “cut” text from a text editor application to satisfy a “paste”operation; a presentation application may comprise a “pasted” textobject whose functionality and/or data may be provided by the texteditor application; etc.). In another example, a wake policy maycorrespond to user input associated with the suspended application(e.g., a user may attempt to interact with a suspended text editorapplication). In another example, a component (e.g., a hardwarecomponent, a software component, a remote third party component, a webcomponent, etc.) may request access to the suspended process. In anotherexample, a wake policy may correspond to a transition of a suspendedapplication associated with the suspended process from a backgroundstate to a foreground state. In this way, the set of wake policies maycomprise a variety of wake policies associated with variousevents/reasons for resuming the suspended process.

A counter may be associated with a wake policy. The counter may beindicative of a number of wake notifications associated with the wakepolicy (e.g., instances of an event/reason specified by a wake policy)that are currently pending for the suspended process. A wakenotification may be a notification of an event/reason specified by awake policy, such as a notification of an inter-process communicationcall. The counter may be incremented (e.g., an event associated with awake notification may be pending) and/or decremented (e.g., an eventassociated with a wake notification may be completed). It may beappreciated that various wake policies and corresponding counters may bemaintained within the set of wake policies. For example, a first counterfor a user input wake policy may be incremented to 1 upon receiving afirst wake notification that a user attempted to interact with asuspended text editor. The first counter for the user input wake policymay be incremented to 2 upon receiving a second wake notification thatthe user made a second attempt to interact with the suspended texteditor. A second counter for an inter-process communication wake policymay be incremented to 1 upon receiving a third wake notification that aspreadsheet application attempted to communicate with the suspended texteditor. The second counter may be decremented to 0 upon a notificationthat the spreadsheet application no longer desires to communicate withthe suspended text editor (e.g., a user shuts down the spreadsheetapplication). In this way, counters associated with wake policies withinthe set of wake policies may be maintained.

In one example, wake notifications may be filtered (e.g., ignored,deleted, and/or refrained from being issued) based upon how a counter istransitioned in light of an execution/suspend state of the process. Inone example, upon determining the process is in the execution state, awake notification transitioning the counter from a 0 value to a 1 valuemay be filtered (e.g., a wake notification that may trigger a wakepolicy to place an already executing process into the executing statemay be filtered because the executing process is already executing). Inanother example, upon determining the process is in the suspend state, awake notification transitioning the counter from a 1 value to a 0 valuemay be filtered (e.g., a wake notification that may trigger a wakepolicy to place an already suspended process into the suspended statemay be filtered because the suspended process is already suspended).

At 406, the set of wake policies associated with the suspended processmay be evaluated to determine whether to place the suspended processinto an execution state or retain the suspended process in a suspendstate. In one example, the suspended process may be placed into theexecution state based upon determining at least one counter associatedwith a wake policy comprises a value above a threshold value (e.g., atleast one counter has a value greater than 0). If no counter comprises avalue above the threshold value, then the suspended process may beretained in the suspend state. In another example, values of one or morecounters may be aggregated together to create an aggregated value. Forexample, an aggregated value of 4 may be determined based upon a firstcounter associated with a user input wake policy having a value of 2 anda second counter associated with a remote third party inter-processcommunication call wake policy having a value of 2. The aggregated valueof 4 may be adjusted based upon weights associated with the wakepolicies. For example, the user input wake policy may have a weightedvalue of 4 (e.g., based upon applying a 2× weight modifier to the valueof 2) because it may be desirable to resume/wake the suspended processin response to user input so that an application associated with thesuspended process is highly responsive to the user. The remote thirdparty inter-process communication policy may have a weighted value of 1(e.g., based upon apply a 0.5× weight modifier to the value of 2)because it may be desirable to throttle down responsiveness to remotethird parties that may be attempting to “noisily” communicate with thesuspended process for non-critical and/or non-desirable reasons. Thesuspended process may be placed into the execution state based upondetermining whether the aggregated value is above a threshold value(e.g., an aggregated value of 5 may be above a threshold value of 3).

It may be appreciated that in one example, the set of wake policies maybe associated with a logical container assigned to the suspended processwithin a logical container hierarchy. Accordingly, if the suspendedprocess is placed into the execution state, then one or more processesand/or applications associated with the suspended process may be placedinto the execution state. For example, a text editor process may beplaced into the execution state. The text editor process may be assignedto a text editor root logical container. A spell checker process mayalso be placed into the execution state based upon determining the spellchecker process is assigned to a logical container associated with(e.g., nested within) the text editor root logical container. In thisway, one or more related processes may be resumed into the executionstate. In one example, saved memory content associated with the resumedprocesses may be restored to memory so that such processes may promptlyresume execution in a responsive manner, while still conserving power.

Once placed into the execution state as an executing process, adetermination may be made as to whether and/or when to return theexecuting process to the suspend state. In one example, a current stateof the set of wake policies may be evaluated (e.g., if counter valuesand/or an aggregate value of counter values are not above the thresholdvalue, then the executing process may be placed back into the suspendstate). In another example, a time elapsed since completion of a wakenotification that caused the executing process to be placed into theexecution state may be evaluated. For example, a presentationapplication may comprise a “pasted” text object whose functionalityand/or data may be provided by a suspended text editor application. Aninter-process communication call may be made from the presentationapplication to the suspended text editor application regarding the“pasted” text object. A wake notification of the communication call maybe received, and the suspended text editor application may be placedinto an execution state to satisfy the inter-process communication call.It may be advantageous to allow the text editor application to remain inthe execution state for a period of time (e.g., as opposed toimmediately placing the text editor application back into the suspendstate) because the presentation application may make subsequentinter-process communication calls to the text editor applicationregarding the “pasted” text object. At 408, the method ends.

One embodiment of determining whether to resume a suspended processbased upon a set of wake policies is illustrated by an exemplary method500 in FIG. 5. At 502, the method starts. At 504, a wake policyassociated with a logical container assigned to a suspended processwithin a logical container hierarchy may be maintained. The wake policymay be indicative of a reason to resume the suspended process into anexecution state. The wake policy may comprise a counter indicative of anumber of wake notifications associated with the wake policy that arecurrently pending for the suspended process. A wake notification may bea notification of an event/reason for resuming the suspended processspecified by a wake policy, such as a notification of an inter-processcommunication call. The counter may be incremented based upon receivinga wake notification associated with the wake policy (e.g., a counterassociated with a user input wake policy may be incremented based uponreceiving a wake notification indicating a user attempted to interactwith a suspended application associated with the suspended process). Thecounter may be decremented based upon receiving notification that thewake notification is not currently pending (e.g., the counter may bedecremented based upon a notification that the user logged off acomputing device hosting the suspended application).

In one example, upon determining a value of the counter is above athreshold, the suspended process may be placed into an execution state,at 506. In one example the logical container hierarchy may be traversedto identify one or more additional suspended processes associated withthe suspended process based upon determining that the one or moreadditional suspended processes are assigned to logical containersassociated with (e.g., nested within) the logical container of thesuspended process. In this way, the one or more additional suspendedprocesses may be placed into the execution state. In another example,upon determining the value of the counter is below the threshold, thesuspended process may be retained in the suspend state, at 508. In thisway, the suspended process may be placed into the execution state orretained in the suspend state based upon the wake policy. At 510, themethod ends.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system 600 configured to determinewhether to resume a suspended process based upon a wake policy. Thesystem 600 may comprise a wake component 624. The wake component 624 maybe configured to maintain a wake policy (e.g., a set of wake policies626, such as inter-process communication wake policy 628, user inputwake policy 630, background to foreground wake policy 632, and/or otherwake policies). The wake policy may be associated with a logicalcontainer assigned to a suspended process within a logical containerhierarchy 610. For example, the set of wake policies 626 may beassociated with a text editor logical container 612 associated with asuspended text editor process 614 of a suspended text editor application602. In one example, a suspended text editor print process 616, asuspended text editor save process 618, and/or a suspended spell checkerprocess 622 may have been suspended based upon the suspension of thetext editor process 614 because such processes may be related (e.g., thesuspended spell checker process 622 may be assigned to a spell checkerlogical container 620 nested within the test editor logical container612).

The wake policy, such as the inter-process communication wake policy628, may be associated with a counter indicative of a number of wakenotifications associated with the wake policy that are currently pendingfor the suspended process. The wake component 624 may be configured toincrement the counter based upon receiving a wake notificationassociated with the wake policy and/or decrement the counter based uponreceiving a notification that the wake notification is not currentlypending. For example a wake notification 608 may be received. The wakenotification 608 may indicate that a spreadsheet application 604 hassent an inter-process communication call to the suspended text editorapplication 602 regarding a pasted text object 606 (e.g., the pastedtext object 606 may derived functionality and/or data from the suspendedtext editor application 602, and thus the spreadsheet application 604requests such functionality and/or data from the suspended text editorapplication 602). The wake component 624 may increment the counterassociated with the inter-process communication wake policy 628 to 1based upon the wake notification 608.

The wake component 624 may be configured to place the suspended processinto an execution state based upon determining a value of the counter isabove a threshold, otherwise the wake component 624 may retain thesuspended process in a suspend state. For example, the wake component624 may place the suspended text editor process 614 into an executionstate based upon the counter of the inter-process communication wakepolicy 628 comprising a value of 1 that is greater than 0. The wakecomponent 624 may traverse the logical container hierarchy 610 toidentify one or more additional suspended processes associated with thesuspended text editor process 614 that is to be resumed into theexecution state. For example, the suspended text editor print process616, the suspended text editor save process 618, and/or the suspendedspell checker process 622 may be identified based upon determining suchprocesses are assigned to the text editor logical container 612 and/orlogical containers associated with (e.g., nested within) the text editorlogical container 612, such as the spell checker logical container 620.In this way, the wake component 624 may place 634 the suspended texteditor process 614, the suspended text editor print process 616, thesuspended text editor save process 618, and/or the suspended spellchecker process 622 into the execution state, such that the text editorapplication 602 may respond to the inter-process communication call fromthe spreadsheet application 604. In one example, the wake component 624may place saved memory content associated with the resumed processesinto memory to improve responsiveness of the text editor application602.

One embodiment of managing an application state of an application isillustrated by an exemplary method 700 in FIG. 7. At 702, the methodstarts. At 704, a list of timers associated with an application may bemaintained (e.g., one or more timers of processes associated with theapplication may be maintained). That is, processes associated with theapplication may be associated with one or more timers, such as relativetimers (e.g., a timeout set at 20 seconds by a text editor applicationfor a text editor save process), absolute timers (e.g., a timeout set at5:00 AM Sep. 15, 2011 by a calendar application), and/or other types oftimers. In one example of a timer, a text editor application may set arelative timer of 20 seconds for a text editor save process because thetext editor save process generally does not take more than 20 seconds tocomplete unless an error has occurred. In another example of a timer, acalendar application may set an absolute timer of 5:00 AM Sep. 15, 2011as a reminder to provide a user with a wake-up notification at 5:00 AMSep. 15, 2011.

In one example, one or more of the timers may be associated with a rootlogical container assigned to the application and/or one or more logicalcontainers assigned to processes associated with the application withina logical container hierarchy. For example, a first timer associatedwith a first process of the application may be maintained based upondetermining the first process is assigned to a first logical containerassociated with (e.g., nested within) the root logical container withinthe logical container hierarchy. A second timer associated with a secondprocess of the application may be maintained based upon determining thesecond process is assigned to a second logical container associated withthe root logical container and/or the first logical container. In thisway, the list of timers associated with processes of the application maybe maintained.

Upon receiving a notification that the application is to be placed intoa suspend state, an application state comprising timer rebasing dataderived from the list of timers may be created, at 706. In one example,absolute timer rebasing data associated with an absolute timer may bestored within the application state. The absolute timer rebasing datamay comprise an original expiration time of the absolute timer (e.g.,the calendar application may desire a notification at 5:00 AM Sep. 15,2011 regardless of whether the time has passed or not due to a processand/or application being placed into a suspend state). In anotherexample, relative timer rebasing data associated with a relative timermay be stored within the application state (e.g., the text editorapplication may desire a timeout notification if a text editor saveprocess does not complete within 20 seconds while in the executionstate). The relative timer rebasing data may comprise a time tillexpiration value (e.g., a time span from when the relative timer issuspended to an original expiration time of the relative timer). Therelative timer rebasing data may, for example, comprise a time tillexpiration value different than the original expiration time because thetext editor application may be concerned with whether the text editorsave process took longer than 20 seconds to complete while in theexecution state (e.g., taking longer than 20 seconds may indicate afatal error occurred), such that a suspension of the text editor saveprocess may toll the relative timer because an expiration of therelative timer due to the text editor save process being suspended maynot be representative of a fatal timeout with which the text editorapplication may be concerned. In this way, the application state may becreated.

Upon receiving notification that the application is to be placed into anexecution state from the suspend state, the timer rebasing data withinthe application state may be applied to one or more timers associatedwith the list of timers. In one example, absolute timer rebasing datamay be applied to an absolute timer to create a rebased absolute timer.The rebased absolute timer may comprise an original expiration time ofthe absolute timer. If the original expiration time has expired, then anotification of the expiration may be provided to the application. Inanother example, relative timer rebasing data may be applied to arelative timer to create a rebased relative timer. The rebased relativetimer may comprise a rebased expiration timer derived from applying thetime till expiration value to a current time. In this way, theapplication and/or processes associated with the application may beplaced into a current application state with respect to timers. At 708,the method ends.

One embodiment of managing an application state of an application isillustrated by an exemplary method 800 in FIG. 8. At 802, the methodstarts. An application may be associated with an application messagequeue. The application message queue may be configured to store systemmessages for the application. In this way, the application may receivesystem messages through the application message queue (e.g., theapplication may dequeue system messages while in an execution state). Asystem message may correspond to a variety of information relating to anapplication state, such as a change in system settings. In one example,a user may rotate a tablet device, which may change the view orientationfrom a landscape view mode to portrait view mode. An operating system ofthe tablet device may queue a system message in the application messagequeue indicating that the current view mode has been set to portrait. Inthis way, the application may dequeue the system message, and may renderitself in a portrait mode to match the current state of tablet device.It may be appreciated that a system message may comprise a variety ofother information, such as user interface color, language settings,input device information, etc.

At 804, the application message queue associated with an application maybe maintained while the application is in a suspend state. That is, theapplication message queue may generally receive system messagesregardless of whether the application is in the suspend state and/or anexecution state (e.g., while a text editor application is suspended, auser may rotate a tablet device multiple times, and thus the operatingsystem may queue multiple system messages corresponding to current viewmodes). Unfortunately, multiple corresponding system messages may bequeued within the application message queue while the application is inthe suspend state, where one or more messages may become irrelevantand/or stale. For example, while a text editor application is suspended,4 system messages may be queued in the application message queue overtime. A user may change a system language setting of a tablet device toGerman, and thus a language=German system message may be queued in theapplication system queue. Next, the user may rotate the tablet device tolandscape mode, and thus a view mode=landscape may be queued in theapplication system queue. The user may then change the system languagesetting of the tablet device to English, and thus a language=Englishsystem message may be queued in the application system queue. Finally,the user may rotate the tablet device to portrait mode, and thus a viewmode=portrait may be queued in the application system queue. In thisway, the application message queue may comprise irrelevant and/or stalesystem messages, such as the language=German and the view mode=landscapesystem message because the language and view mode has been changes toother values. Accordingly, the application message queue may bemaintained to delete and/or modify irrelevant and/or stale messages.

In one example, a first system message direct to the application messagequeue may be received while the application is in the suspend state. Adetermination may be made as to whether the first system messagecorresponds to a second system message within the application messagequeue (e.g., if the first system message corresponds to a languagesystem message, then the application message queue may be traversed toidentify one or more system message corresponding to the language systemmessage). Upon determining the first system message corresponds to thesecond system message, the first system message and/or the second systemmessage may be deleted and/or modified (e.g., the first system message,which may be newer and/or more relevant, may be retained, while thesecond system message may be deleted). For example, relevancy rankingsmay be assigned to the first and second system messages to determinewhich system message to modify and/or delete. At 806, the method ends.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a system 900 configured to manage anapplication state of an application, such as timer data and/or systemmessage data. The system 900 may comprise an application state manager910. The application state manager 910 may be configured to maintain alist of timers 904 associated with an application. For example, the listof timers 904 may comprise a spell checker relative timer 906 set totimeout after 10 minutes, a text editor absolute timer 908 set totimeout at 3:00 PM Aug. 12, 2011, and/or other timers. The applicationstate manager 910 may receive a notification 902 that the application isto be placed into a suspend state. For example, the notification 902 mayindicate that a text editor application and/or a spell checkerapplication are to be placed into the suspend state.

Upon receiving the notification 902, the application state manager 910may create an application state 912 comprising timer rebasing dataderived from the list of timers 904. For example, relative timerrebasing data 914 for the spell checker relative timer 906 may becreated. The relative timer rebasing data 914 may comprise a time tillexpiration value of 8 minutes because 2 out of the 10 minutes may haveelapsed by the time the spell checker application was suspended, andthus leaving 8 minutes till expiration of the 10 minute relative timer.Absolute timer rebasing data 916 for the text editor absolute timer 908may be created. The absolute timer rebasing data 916 may comprise anoriginal expiration time of 3:00 PM Aug. 12, 2011. In this way, theapplication state 912 may be created.

Upon receiving notification that the text editor application and/or thespell checker application are to be placed into an execution state, therelative timer rebasing data 914 and/or the absolute timer rebasing data916 within the application state 912 may be applied to the spell checkerrelative timer 906 and/or the text editor absolute timer 908. In thisway, a rebased relative timer of 8 minutes may be created and a rebasedabsolute timer of 3:00 PM Aug. 12, 2011 may be created.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a system 1000 configured to manage anapplication state of an application, such as system messages. The system1000 may comprise a message management component 1006. The messagemanagement component 1006 may be configured to maintain an applicationmessage queue 1004 associated with an application while the applicationis in a suspend state. The application message queue 1004 may beconfigured to store system messages for the application. In one example,a text editor application may be associated with the application messagequeue 1004. The text editor application may be placed into the suspendstate. It may be appreciated that new system messages may be queuedwithin the application message queue 1004 while the text editorapplication is suspended. A current state of the application messagequeue 1004 may comprise a view mode=landscape system message, a userinterface=green system message, a language=English system message, a newinput device=mouse, and/or other system messages.

While the application is suspended, new system messages 1002 may bereceived (e.g., view mode=portrait new system message, userinterface=red new system message, new input device=keyboard new systemmessage, and/or other new system messages). The message managementcomponent 1006 may be configured to maintain the application messagequeue 1004 in light of the new system message 1002 so that irrelevantand/or stale system messages are deleted and/or modified from theapplication message queue 1004. In one example, the view mode=portraitnew system message may be determined as corresponding to the viewmode=landscape system message within the application message queue 1004.Because the view mode=portrait new system message may render the viewmode=landscape system message irrelevant and/or stale, the viewmode=landscape system message may be deleted 1012 and the viewmode=portrait new system message may be added 1008 to the applicationmessage queue 1004.

In another example, the user interface=red new system message may bedetermined as corresponding to the user interface=green system messagewithin the application message queue 1004. Because the userinterface=red new system message may render the user interface=greensystem message irrelevant and/or stale, the user interface=green systemmessage may be deleted 1014 and the user interface=red new systemmessage may be added 1010 to the application message queue 1004. Inanother example, the new input device=keyboard new system message may bedetermined as corresponding to the new input device=mouse systemmessage. Because the new input device=keyboard new system message may besupplementary to the new input device=mouse system message, the newinput device=mouse system message may be modified 1016 to new inputdevice=mouse and keyboard system message. In this way, the applicationmessage queue 1004 may be maintained by the message management componentwhile the application is suspended so that the application, onceresumed, may dequeue merely relevant system messages.

Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium comprisingprocessor-executable instructions configured to implement one or more ofthe techniques presented herein. An exemplary computer-readable mediumthat may be devised in these ways is illustrated in FIG. 11, wherein theimplementation 1100 comprises a computer-readable medium 1116 (e.g., aCD-R, DVD-R, or a platter of a hard disk drive), on which is encodedcomputer-readable data 1114. This computer-readable data 1114 in turncomprises a set of computer instructions 1112 configured to operateaccording to one or more of the principles set forth herein. In one suchembodiment 1100, the processor-executable computer instructions 1112 maybe configured to perform a method 1110, such as at least some of theexemplary method 100 of FIG. 1, at least some of exemplary method 200 ofFIG. 2, at least some of exemplary method 400 of FIG. 4, at least someof exemplary method 500 of FIG. 5, at least some of exemplary method 700of FIG. 7, and/or at least some of exemplary method 800 of FIG. 8, forexample. In another such embodiment, the processor-executableinstructions 1112 may be configured to implement a system, such as atleast some of the exemplary system 300 of FIG. 3, at least some of theexemplary system 600 of FIG. 6, at least some of the exemplary system900 of FIG. 9, and/or at least some of the exemplary system 1000 of FIG.10, for example. Many such computer-readable media may be devised bythose of ordinary skill in the art that are configured to operate inaccordance with the techniques presented herein.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system”,“interface”, and the like are generally intended to refer to acomputer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware andsoftware, software, or software in execution. For example, a componentmay be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, aprocessor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program,and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application runningon a controller and the controller can be a component. One or morecomponents may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and acomponent may be localized on one computer and/or distributed betweentwo or more computers.

Furthermore, the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method,apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosedsubject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, those skilled inthe art will recognize many modifications may be made to thisconfiguration without departing from the scope or spirit of the claimedsubject matter.

FIG. 12 and the following discussion provide a brief, generaldescription of a suitable computing environment to implement embodimentsof one or more of the provisions set forth herein. The operatingenvironment of FIG. 12 is only one example of a suitable operatingenvironment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to thescope of use or functionality of the operating environment. Examplecomputing devices include, but are not limited to, personal computers,server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, mobile devices (such asmobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), media players, andthe like), multiprocessor systems, consumer electronics, mini computers,mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include anyof the above systems or devices, and the like.

Although not required, embodiments are described in the general contextof “computer readable instructions” being executed by one or morecomputing devices. Computer readable instructions may be distributed viacomputer readable media (discussed below). Computer readableinstructions may be implemented as program modules, such as functions,objects, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures, andthe like, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstractdata types. Typically, the functionality of the computer readableinstructions may be combined or distributed as desired in variousenvironments.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a system 1210 comprising a computingdevice 1212 configured to implement one or more embodiments providedherein. In one configuration, computing device 1212 includes at leastone processing unit 1216 and memory 1218. Depending on the exactconfiguration and type of computing device, memory 1218 may be volatile(such as RAM, for example), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory,etc., for example) or some combination of the two. This configuration isillustrated in FIG. 12 by dashed line 1214.

In other embodiments, device 1212 may include additional features and/orfunctionality. For example, device 1212 may also include additionalstorage (e.g., removable and/or non-removable) including, but notlimited to, magnetic storage, optical storage, and the like. Suchadditional storage is illustrated in FIG. 12 by storage 1220. In oneembodiment, computer readable instructions to implement one or moreembodiments provided herein may be in storage 1220. Storage 1220 mayalso store other computer readable instructions to implement anoperating system, an application program, and the like. Computerreadable instructions may be loaded in memory 1218 for execution byprocessing unit 1216, for example.

The term “computer readable media” as used herein includes computerstorage media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in any method ortechnology for storage of information such as computer readableinstructions or other data. Memory 1218 and storage 1220 are examples ofcomputer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) or other optical storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to storethe desired information and which can be accessed by device 1212. Anysuch computer storage media may be part of device 1212.

Device 1212 may also include communication connection(s) 1226 thatallows device 1212 to communicate with other devices. Communicationconnection(s) 1226 may include, but is not limited to, a modem, aNetwork Interface Card (NIC), an integrated network interface, a radiofrequency transmitter/receiver, an infrared port, a USB connection, orother interfaces for connecting computing device 1212 to other computingdevices. Communication connection(s) 1226 may include a wired connectionor a wireless connection. Communication connection(s) 1226 may transmitand/or receive communication media.

The term “computer readable media” may include communication media.Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions orother data in a “modulated data signal” such as a carrier wave or othertransport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. Theterm “modulated data signal” may include a signal that has one or moreof its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encodeinformation in the signal.

Device 1212 may include input device(s) 1224 such as keyboard, mouse,pen, voice input device, touch input device, infrared cameras, videoinput devices, and/or any other input device. Output device(s) 1222 suchas one or more displays, speakers, printers, and/or any other outputdevice may also be included in device 1212. Input device(s) 1224 andoutput device(s) 1222 may be connected to device 1212 via a wiredconnection, wireless connection, or any combination thereof. In oneembodiment, an input device or an output device from another computingdevice may be used as input device(s) 1224 or output device(s) 1222 forcomputing device 1212.

Components of computing device 1212 may be connected by variousinterconnects, such as a bus. Such interconnects may include aPeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), such as PCI Express, aUniversal Serial Bus (USB), firewire (IEEE 1394), an optical busstructure, and the like. In another embodiment, components of computingdevice 1212 may be interconnected by a network. For example, memory 1218may be comprised of multiple physical memory units located in differentphysical locations interconnected by a network.

Those skilled in the art will realize that storage devices utilized tostore computer readable instructions may be distributed across anetwork. For example, a computing device 1230 accessible via a network1228 may store computer readable instructions to implement one or moreembodiments provided herein. Computing device 1212 may access computingdevice 1230 and download a part or all of the computer readableinstructions for execution. Alternatively, computing device 1212 maydownload pieces of the computer readable instructions, as needed, orsome instructions may be executed at computing device 1212 and some atcomputing device 1230.

Various operations of embodiments are provided herein. In oneembodiment, one or more of the operations described may constitutecomputer readable instructions stored on one or more computer readablemedia, which if executed by a computing device, will cause the computingdevice to perform the operations described. The order in which some orall of the operations are described should not be construed as to implythat these operations are necessarily order dependent. Alternativeordering will be appreciated by one skilled in the art having thebenefit of this description. Further, it will be understood that not alloperations are necessarily present in each embodiment provided herein.

Moreover, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as anexample, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design describedherein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as advantageousover other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary isintended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in thisapplication, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” ratherthan an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clearfrom context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the naturalinclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or Xemploys both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any ofthe foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as usedin this application and the appended claims may generally be construedto mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from contextto be directed to a singular form. Also, at least one of A and B and/orthe like generally means A or B or both A and B.

Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respectto one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modificationswill occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading andunderstanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. Thedisclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and islimited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regardto the various functions performed by the above described components(e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component which performs the specified function of the describedcomponent (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though notstructurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs thefunction in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of thedisclosure. In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosuremay have been disclosed with respect to only one of severalimplementations, such feature may be combined with one or more otherfeatures of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageousfor any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent thatthe terms “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof areused in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms areintended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for managing an application state of anapplication, comprising: maintaining an application message queueassociated with an application while the application is in a suspendstate, the application message queue configured to store system messagesfor the application while the application is in the suspend state;determining whether a first system message directed to the applicationmessage queue while the application is in the suspend state issupplementary to a second system message within the application messagequeue; upon determining the first system message is supplementary to thesecond system message, modifying at least one of the first systemmessage or the second system message by merging the first system messageand the second system message; maintaining and associating one or morecounters with one or more wake policies for waking the application afterthe application is put into a suspend state, the wake policies causingthe application to be transitioned out of the suspend state when the oneor more counters reach a predetermined aggregate threshold of wakenotifications, the one or more counters being incremented or decrementedin response to a wake notification that is created in response to anevent associated with the one or more wake policies; and processing atleast the modified message.
 2. The method of claim 1, comprising:maintaining a list of timers associated with the application.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, comprising: creating timer rebasing data derived fromthe list of timers.
 4. The method of claim 3, the timer rebasing datacomprising at least one of an original expiration time of an absolutetimer or a time till expiration value of a relative timer.
 5. The methodof claim 2, the maintaining a list of timers comprising: maintaining oneor more timers associated with a root logical container assigned to theapplication within a logical container hierarchy.
 6. The method of claim5, the maintaining a list of timers comprising: maintaining a firsttimer associated with a first process of the application based upondetermining the first process is assigned to a first logical containerassociated with the root logical container within the logical containerhierarchy.
 7. The method of claim 6, the maintaining a list of timerscomprising: maintaining a second timer associated with a second processof the application based upon determining the second process is assignedto a second logical container associated with the first logicalcontainer.
 8. The method of claim 3, comprising: upon receiving anotification that the application is to be transitioned out of thesuspend state and placed into an execution state, applying the timerrebasing data to one or more timers associated with the list of timers.9. The method of claim 8, the applying the timer rebasing datacomprising: applying relative timer rebasing data to a relative timer tocreate a rebased relative timer, the rebased relative timer comprising arebased expiration time derived from applying a time till expirationvalue to a current time.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the methodfurther includes applying relevancy rankings to the first system messageand the second system message to determine which message to delete priorto deleting the at least one of the first system message and the secondsystem message.
 11. The method claim 1, wherein the method furtherincludes applying different weights to different types of wakenotifications, such that different types of wake notifications cause theone or more counters to be incremented differently.
 12. A system formanaging an application state of an application, comprising: one or moreprocessing units; and memory comprising computer-executable instructionsthat are executable by the one or more processing units to cause thesystem to: maintain an application message queue associated with anapplication while the application is in a suspend state, the applicationmessage queue configured to store system messages for the applicationwhile the application is in the suspend state; and maintain andassociate one or more counters with one or more wake policies for wakingthe application after the application is put into a suspend state, thewake policies causing the application to be transitioned out of thesuspend state when the one or more counters reach a predeterminedaggregate threshold of wake notifications, the one or more countersbeing incremented or decremented in response to a wake notification thatis created in response to an event associated with the one or more wakepolicies.
 13. The system of claim 12, the application state managerconfigured to: upon receiving a notification that the application is tobe transitioned out of the suspend state and placed into an executionstate, apply timer rebasing data to one or more timers associated withthe application, wherein the timer rebasing data comprises a duration oftime during which the application is determined to have remained in asuspend state prior to being transitioned out of the suspend state. 14.The system of claim 12, comprising: a component configured to maintain alist of timers associated with the application.
 15. The system of claim12, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further executableby the one or more processing units to cause the system to determinewhether a first system message directed to the application message queuewhile the application is in the suspend state corresponds to a secondsystem message within the application message queue, where the firstsystem message and the second system message originate from and aredirected to a same computer; upon determining the first system messageis supplementary to the second system message, modify at least one ofthe first system message or the second system message by merging thefirst system message and the second system message; delete at least oneof the first system message and the second system message based onrelevancy rankings associated with the first system message and thesecond system message; and to process at least the modified message. 16.A computer readable storage device comprising computer executableinstructions that when executed via a processing unit perform operationsfor managing an application state of an application, comprising:maintaining an application message queue associated with an applicationwhile the application is in a suspend state, the application messagequeue configured to store system messages for the application while theapplication is in the suspend state; maintaining and associating one ormore counters with one or more wake policies for waking the applicationafter the application is put into a suspend state, the wake policiescausing the application to be transitioned out of the suspend state whenthe one or more counters a predetermined aggregate threshold of wakenotifications, the one or more counters being incremented or decrementedin response to a wake notification that is created in response to anevent associated with the one or more wake policies; determining whethera first system message directed to the application message queue whilethe application is in the suspend state corresponds to a second systemmessage within the application message queue; and upon determining thefirst system message is supplementary to the second system message,modifying at least one of the first system message or the second systemmessage.
 17. The computer readable storage device of claim 16,comprising processing the first system message.
 18. The computerreadable storage device of claim 16, the setting corresponding to theview orientation.
 19. The computer readable storage device of claim 16,the setting corresponding to the user interface color.
 20. The computerreadable storage device of claim 16, the setting corresponding to thelanguage.
 21. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, whereinthe first system message comprises a first value for a settingcorresponding to one of a user interface color, a view orientation or alanguage and the second system message comprises a second value,different than the first value, for the setting.
 22. The computerreadable storage device of claim 16, wherein the modifying includesmerging the first system message and the second system message.
 23. Thecomputer readable storage device of claim 16, wherein the modifyingincludes deleting at least one of the first system message and thesecond system message based on relevancy rankings associated with thefirst system message and the second system message.